Luther's Doctrine of the Application of Salvation⤒🔗

Another important contribution made by Luther concerns his doctrine of the application of salvation. Luther takes issue with the views of both Rome and the Anabaptists on this subject. The Roman Catholic Church taught that the sacraments infuse (pour in) divine grace or sanctifying power, mechanically or ex opere operato. The Anabaptists, going to the opposite extreme, believed that the Holy Spirit operates immediately (apart from any means or instruments) upon the human heart. Luther rejected both these approaches as unbiblical and taught that the salvation accomplished by Christ is applied to the hearts of sinners by the Holy Spirit who uses the means of grace, especially the Word and the sacraments, to work faith, regeneration, and sanctification in the hearts of men. A key element here is the proclamation of law and gospel.

The Law and the Gospel←⤒🔗

Characteristic of Luther's preaching is his emphasis on the necessity of a "law work" in order to be saved. Before a sinner will ever trust in Christ for salvation, he insisted, the Holy Spirit must apply the law of God to his heart so as to convict him of sin and bring him to despair of saving himself. In this way the Spirit works faith in the sinner's heart by the Gospel enabling him to receive as a free gift, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

Both law and gospel must be clearly and judicially preached, Luther insists. Only he is an able minister of the New Testament who knows how to distinguish between the law and the gospel as "two messages that are more than contradictory." The law is "the divine Word which tells us of our sins and the wrath of God," while the gospel is "the divine Word which shows and imparts to us the grace and forgiveness of God in Christ." Both divine messages are necessary and are equally inspired by the Holy Spirit. There must be the right knowledge of sin and divine wrath for repentance; and there must be the gospel "which offers the Spirit and grace for the remission of sins."

Faith in Christ←⤒🔗

Luther writes: "Contrition flows from the Law; faith from the promises of God." But what, according to Luther, is justifying or saving faith? Against Rome, Luther stresses the fact that saving faith does not jus­tify as a good work or quality, but only as the "receiving" by the sinner of God's gracious forgiveness pro­cured by Christ, which the Holy Spirit offers and imparts to the contrite believer in and through the gospel. Such faith, Luther says, is "not a doing (that is, man's own meritorious work), but a receiving ... It is not a quiescent thing, but a lively and ceaseless action ... which lives and moves and can never rest." It is a dynamic, vigorous apprehension of the promises of grace offered in the gospel. Luther says: "If you believe, you have; if you don't believe, you do not have; and, you have as much as you believe."

According to Luther, faith and love are always joined, though love does not constitute the reason why faith saves; it is always the result of faith. The two doctrines must go hand in hand: "Believing and loving, or: receiving good works and doing good works. Faith receives the good works of Christ; love does good works toward the neighbour." But faith produces good works, just because it is a "cordial trust in God through Christ," or a "firm and certain conviction or confidence concerning God that He through Christ is reconciled."

Perhaps Luther's best and clearest definition of faith as a lively, dynamic activity is found in his preface to Paul's Epistle to the Romans. There he writes:

Faith is a divine work in us which changes us and regenerates us of God, and puts to death the old Adam, makes us entirely different men in heart, spirit, mind, and all powers, and brings with it the Holy Ghost. Oh, it is a living, busy, active, powerful thing that we have in faith, so that it is impossible for it not to do good without ceasing. Nor does it ask whether good works are to be done; but before the question is asked, it has wrought them, and is always engaged in doing them. But he who does not do such works is void of faith, and gropes and looks about after faith and good works, and knows neither what faith nor what good works are, yet babbles and prates with many words concerning faith and good works. Justifying faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain that a man would die a thousand times for it. And this trust and knowledge of divine grace renders joyful, fearless, and cheerful toward God and all creatures, which the Holy Ghost works through faith; and on account of this, man becomes ready and cheerful, without coercion, to do good to everyone, to serve every one, and to suffer everything for love and praise to God, who has conferred this grace on him, so that it is impossible to separate works from faith, yea, just as impossible as if it is for heat and light to be separated from fire."

Justification and Good Works←⤒🔗

The doctrine of justification by faith in Christ and the resulting good works are central in Luther's teaching. According to Luther, justification is a forensic or judicial act, by which God declares the sinner who puts his trust in Christ to be in full possession of the righteousness which Christ has secured by His vicarious atonement. But as faith is immediately followed by justification, so also justification is followed at once by sanctification or good works. Sanctification, in Luther's theology, means nothing else than to do good works, that is, works that are in agreement with God's will, are performed in true faith in Christ, by the strength of the Holy Spirit, out of sincere grat­itude, to the glory of God, and the good of the neighbour. Good works indeed do not justify us, as Rome falsely teaches, nor do they meritoriously preserve us in faith unto salvation. Luther declares: "It is one thing (to say) that faith justifies without works, and quite another (to say) that it is without works." Again: "Just as a living person cannot keep himself from being active, but must eat and drink and always be about some work ... so, in order to do good works, you need not do more than merely say: 'only believe.' Then you will do all good works of a free will." According to Luther, all truly good works therefore have their source and origin in a living faith in Christ.

Luther has often been criticized for his alleged "reductionist" view of the law, as if conviction of sin is its only function. I believe this criticism is both unfair and unfounded. Granted that Calvin's treatment of the law is more balanced and complete, yet I believe that Luther's emphasis on the necessity of a "law-work" is basically correct and not at all "uncalvinistic" as some have charged.

I do not hesitate to say that it is precisely because Luther's teaching on this vital subject has been large­ly rejected or ignored in most Protestant churches that spiritual life is at such a low ebb, generally speaking. That is not to say that all who stress the function of the law as a "schoolmaster to Christ" always do so in a balanced and biblical way. Many are guilty of excesses here and even the best preachers can easily fall into the trap of a methodistic schematizing in this area. But fundamentally, Luther was right, and those ministers who have followed his model have seen their pulpit labours crowned with many blessings. Provided we preach both law and gospel with an emphasis on the law as an instrument of the gospel to make room in the heart for Christ, we may confidently look for fruits of faith working through love in our congregations.

The following hymn which clearly reflects the spirit of Luther, sums it up this way:

The law of God is good and wise
And sets his will before our eyes,
Shows us the way of righteousness
And dooms to death when we transgress.
Its light of holiness imparts
The knowledge of our sinful hearts,
That we may see our lost estate
And seek deliv'rance ere too late.

To those who help in Christ have found
And would in works of love abound It shows what deeds are his delight
And should be done as good and right.
When men the offered help disdain
And willfully in sin remain,
Its terror in their ears resounds
And keeps their wickedness in bounds.

The law is good; but since the fall,
Its holiness condemns us all;
It dooms us for our sin to die
And has no pow'r to justify.
To Jesus we for refuge flee,
Who from the curse has set us free,
And humbly worship at his throne,
Saved by his grace through faith alone.